As a small note, just for your information: Wikia is preparing a new skin. This skin will replace the current Monobook skin for all visitors and new contributors. Current contributors will keep the Monobook skin until they change to the new skin. The old one will stay an alternative for the time being, of course.

Layout and discussion can be found here: w:Newskin. Also, an MA-specific version of that skin is being prepared, meaning that we're definitely keeping our "CI/CD", even for new visitors. More about that later. -- Cid Highwind 20:35, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Do we have to change the default skin for MA? Who is designing the new MA skin? Must we have to have all that "share it", "email it", "rate it", "flag for review" crap in there? Do you really see any article being "dugg" by iteslf rather than just linked? (or Newsvinded or Bloggered or Facebooked!?) Sheesh, and "e-mail it"? Come on, copy and paste the damn link, that is not useful enough to take up space. Lame! Also, I don't like the "this wiki" box, as though MA could not stand on its own. Bah. --Grumpy old man 19:55, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, my grumpy old friend...

As stated above, the Monobook skin will continue to exist for all that already have an account or want to change back to it with a newly created account. Will the new one become the default? Yes. Is this a bad thing? No, I don't think so...

The "MA skin" is basically the current color scheme applied to the new standard Wikia skin (although I guess some lower-nibble color changes might occur where appropriate; don't sue me if that happens!). It is being worked on by the designer who did the general skin as well. I'll see if I can get a current WIP image of it.

Everything else: I personally don't need any of that, no. That doesn't mean it won't be useful at all. Please bring that up on the wikia page for the new skin: w:Newskin. -- Cid Highwind 11:57, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

The image I just added is a mockup of what the new skin might look for MA, not an actual HTML page. Some interface elements are still supposed to be moved around. -- Cid Highwind 11:50, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Wow, it looks like this new skin will be much better, basically because I hate the 3-column format on my puny 800x600 screen (with enlarged fonts). I've even run into formating problems using the current skin. So, at least one person is looking forward to it...

fyi, its 309px from the top to the first article line. That means you will have to scroll more than half way down each time you load a page just to read the content. Oh, and that is with normal-sized fonts. --Bp 21:39, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

I know, I already use it on all the other wikia sites. And I'd much rather have to scroll down to read an article than to have the tables formatted incorrectly. There's just something madly disconcerting about having text overflow a table.

Also, I'd much rather use a clone of the monobook on wikipedia (sans google ads). If you can tell me how to make a user style that disables them (or at least puts them at the bottom of the page) I'd be grateful. As it is now, I have to use the woefully outdated Classic skin to get the space I need.

--C64 00:16, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

PS It's also annoying that I have to change my settings when I switch between wikias. I really, really need to learn more about CSS. --c64

To remove the ad box and make the content area full width, edit your monobook.css and add these lines:

Thanks! That helps a lot. I just don't like three columns. (I didn't really mind the ads.) Anyways, now all I need to do is to somehow limit the content column to screen width. I'll check classic.css to see if I can figure that out myself. But thanks again--C64

Please note that I am colour blind. With the new skin... 95% of the front page is illegible. The black on (what i am told is red, but looks brownish to me) is invisible text until I highlight it. That's just unacceptable. Completely unacceptable. If I run across a webpage like that, it doesn't take me long to wander away from it. Seriously. Far away. -- Sulfur 01:42, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

All new skins should be high-contrast (white-on-dark-grey or black-on-white, that is). Wikia was made aware of a problem with the main page using the new memalpha skin yesterday. This may either be a result of the new CSS (which should be fixed shortly), or a problem with our own common.css (which I will check later). In any case, it's being worked on. :) -- Cid Highwind 10:11, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

I was experimenting with using this skin yesterday, and the font style and colors i specified in my monobook.css didn't work. Is ita problem with my CSS or with the skin? ~Anya Prynn | Talk 01:00, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Monobook.css won't have any effect on any skin other than monobook. But you can use common.css to change the same values on all skins, or <skin name>.css to change that skin specifically. There is also a global.css which you can change on the Central Wikia to make changes that will apply on all Wikia. -- sannse (talk) 09:02, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Hi. Has there been any discussion about creating a custom skin for Wikia's new Quartz variation? Right now the site's default is a modded Monobook, but it's eventually going to default to one of the new schemes (Sapphire, Smoke, Brick, etc... viewable in Preferences). One problem that would need to be addressed is the placement of Template:Realworld. As seen here, the new layout doesn't play well with that positioning. —Scott (talk) 05:50, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Just to clarify, the Realworld template is still there, but the coordinates place it behind the adspace. Here's a screenshot of what it looks like with Flash disabled. —Scott (talk) 04:29, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Actually, there is a discussion about this over at Forum:New Wikia-wide skin, but it hasn't been discussed since last July or so. It may be worth coming back to. --OuroborosCobratalk 05:06, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Last time on Wikia's new skins: Version 1 skins were presented, and an MA-specific version was promised. Somehow, major parts of the audience thought the skins sucked, so Version 2 was created, which sucked less. As the last step, we got different "themes" (does that make it Version 2.5? I don't know!). What about the promised MA-skin, you ask? I don't know that, either!

And now, the conclusion: I took some time to customize the Quartz skin, using the typical MA colors and background, and guess what? It looks just like MA always has looked, only with the menu pushed to the right. Wow! -- Cid Highwind 21:12, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Hi Cid ... we postponed further development of Quartz due to user feedback on the size of the right margin and instead focused on the Monaco design, which has been rolling out on the site and gotten a much better reception from users. Johnq (talk) 01:38, 3 April 2008 (UTC)